But the question of 'who are the biggest liabilities?' is another tough one, and something that you hear fans debate all the time. It's pointed to, for instance, as the reason Sheldon Souray wasn't a good signing in Edmonton, or, in this city, whenever a goal goes in and Bryan McCabe is on the ice.

But how do you measure who the worst of the worst are, and can you eliminate factors such as bad goaltending and poor linemates?

Behind The Net has some pretty interesting statistics available that help with this very sort of question. Even strength goals against averages for every single NHL player, both when they are on the ice and off, as well as barometers of quality of competition and quality of teammates.

Here's the list based simply on how much worse off players' teams were with them on the ice:

Lowest-ranked defencemen (40+ games played w/ one team)

NAME

TM

GP

Qual.

On ice GA/60

Off ice GA/60

Comp.

GAA dif

NHL Rank

1

EMINGER

WSH

68

-0.04

3.93

2.61

1.320

561

2

MESZAROS

OTT

82

-0.03

3.14

1.85

1.290

559

3

PHANEUF

CGY

79

0.006

3.01

1.76

1.250

558

4

NUMMELIN

MIN

51

-0.07

3.1

1.87

1.230

557

5

STUART

BOS

68

0.007

4.0

2.78

1.220

556

6

REDDEN

OTT

64

-0.06

3.16

1.96

1.200

554

7

AUCOIN

CHI

59

-0.02

3.56

2.5

1.060

547

8

HAVELID

ATL

77

0.188

3.11

2.1

1.010

545

9

DALLMAN

L.A

53

-0.12

3.82

2.87

0.950

541

10

VISHNEVSKI

ATL

52

0.028

3.1

2.26

0.840

531

11

JOHNSON

CBJ

61

-0.11

3.13

2.31

0.820

529

12

SKRASTINS

COL

68

0.124

3.39

2.58

0.810

526

13

SOURAY

MTL

81

0.016

3.43

2.62

0.810

526

14

CULLIMORE

CHI

65

-0.03

3.36

2.56

0.800

524

15

GAUTHIER

PHI

43

0

4.27

3.53

0.740

515

16

LILJA

DET

57

-0.01

2.47

1.75

0.720

511

17

RACHUNEK

NYR

66

0.007

2.76

2.05

0.710

505

18

KUBA

T.B

81

-0.01

3.38

2.68

0.700

503

19

KWIATKOWSKI

FLA

41

-0.06

3.26

2.61

0.650

492

20

BREWER

STL

82

0.118

2.87

2.24

0.630

489

Lowest-ranked forwards (40+ games played w/ one team)

NAME

TM

GP

Qual.

On ice GA/60

Off ice GA/60

Comp.

GAA dif

NHL Rank

1

ZUBRUS

WSH

60

0.03

4.27

2.61

1.660

566

2

SCATCHARD

PHX

46

-0.03

4.41

2.77

1.640

565

3

KOIVU

MTL

81

0.038

3.91

2.51

1.400

564

4

OVECHKIN

WSH

82

0.011

3.9

2.51

1.390

563

5

PROSPAL

T.B

82

0.007

3.8

2.41

1.390

562

6

CALDER

PHI

59

0.022

4.69

3.4

1.290

560

7

BRUNETTE

COL

82

0.059

3.67

2.46

1.210

555

8

ZHERDEV

CBJ

71

-0.04

3.33

2.2

1.130

553

9

SHARP

CHI

80

0.019

3.55

2.44

1.110

552

10

BERGERON

BOS

77

0.07

3.93

2.84

1.090

551

11

LECAVALIER

T.B

82

0.014

3.61

2.52

1.090

550

12

MORRISON

VAN

82

0.016

3.01

1.93

1.080

549

13

TANGUAY

CGY

81

0.009

2.99

1.92

1.070

548

14

VERMETTE

OTT

77

0.013

3.07

2.03

1.040

546

15

PRUCHA

NYR

79

-0.02

2.99

2.01

0.980

544

16

HORCOFF

EDM

80

0.057

3.6

2.65

0.950

542

17

HIGGINS

MTL

61

0.055

3.64

2.67

0.950

542

18

RYDER

MTL

82

0.033

3.58

2.65

0.930

540

19

UMBERGER

PHI

81

0.006

4.34

3.41

0.930

539

20

TJARNQVIST

DAL

43

-0.01

2.87

1.98

0.890

538

N.B. for Oilers fans: Joffrey Lupul was No. 21 among forwards on this metric last season.

Quite a few of the players above had god-awful seasons last year, and a few aren't coming back as a result (Jassen Cullimore and Dave Scatchard come to mind). Others, like Nicklas Havelid, Eric Brewer and Karlis Skrastins, played against tough opposition all season.

Still, even if you're producing offence, like Alex Ovechkin or Vincent Lecavalier, this isn't a list you want to be on. (And this makes me wonder how Dainius Zubrus will fit in with New Jersey this season.)

Now, these are not lists of the worst defensive players in the league, but merely a jumping off point: I'm still working on a list that will include strength of competition as well as something that can weight the goals against based on a team's goals against average. I'm hoping to put something together based on this season's numbers as soon as those come available.

As for McCabe? The Maple Leafs' goals against actually improved when he was on the ice at even strength, going from 2.72 to 2.63.

Just don't play him on the penalty kill.

UPDATE This post is being picked up far and wide now, and I want to reiterate that I'm not saying these are the worst defensive players in the league. This is the first post in a series that I'm putting together, and I think you'll see players like Phaneuf, etc., will be eliminated from the equation when I factor in quality of competition and other metrics.

What this does show is that more goals are going in when these players are on the ice, which is step one in determining defensive performance.

Also, these are all even-strength totals; special teams play is not a factor.

LT, I was surprised too, but a) Horc had a craptacular season offensively last year (as did the whole team), and b) they had a worse time defensively. So it's not surprising, actually, to see him on there: he was out against the best, night after night. I'd guess the year before he'd have been nowhere near it.

IMO, Horc's inclusion on the list isn't a red flag that the list is flawed; it's a red flag that the Oilers sucked (as if we needed more).

Although eliminating ENG should be done, both ways, if it hasn't been already.

The reason Phaneuf has a higher even strength GAA than the rest of Calgary's defence is because he is playing 25 minutes a game or more against the TOP 6 forwards of other teams while the numbers 3 to 6 Dmen on Calgary are playing against the BOTTOM 6 forwards of the opposition. I'm not sure how the quality of opposition adjusts for this.

Anyway, if Keenan believes these stats and wants to get rid of Phaneuf I'm sure Dave Nonis would be willing to entertain a trade again!

The problem, of course, is that looking at a player in isolation does not work well when there are twelve bodies on the ice moving at once.

As an example, Phaneuf is a good defenceman individually. He will be a great defenceman when he has a few more years under his belt. But the Flames as a team were, surprisingly, terrible defensively last year, especially in the second half, because the forwards pretty much abandoned the D. We scored a pile more goals, but gave up a pile more as well. As one of the top ice-time guys, he took that hit on your chart.

Ditto Horcoff. The Oilers as a team were so brutal last year that he was going to get drilled no matter what.

Shame the worst defenceman in the game is no longer in North America. As we in Calgary used to say to our Oiler bretheren: "You just can't replace a Cory Cross."

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About Me

James has covered the NHL and the game of hockey since 2004, beginning with this website and continuing with The Globe and Mail (2008-16) and The Athletic. He is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, a long-time radio analyst with TSN and was the NHL network manager at SB Nation from 2008 to 2010. A graduate of Thompson Rivers and Ryerson universities, James grew up in Kamloops, B.C. as a season ticket holder in the Blazers' glory years.

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